Chimere DUST Tropospheric Transport of Mineral Dust
  • The CHIMERE-DUST model is dedicated to the transport of mineral particles. It is developped on the basis of the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model.
  • CHIMERE-DUST is developed and validated at IPSL/LMD. For further informations, contact Laurent MENUT
  • The model development is now frozen: the next version will be included in the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model.
  • Forecast with CHIMERE-DUST
Model characteristics:
  • Off-line meteorology forcing: ECMWF or NCEP/MM5
  • Horizontal resolution: from a few kilometers to 2 degrees
  • Vertical resolution: from surface (Dz=30m) to 200hPa
  • Horizontal transport scheme: first order upwind advection or Van Leer scheme
  • Dry deposition: [Wesely, 1982] or [Venkatram and Pleim, 1999]
  • Wet deposition: [Loosmore and Cederwall, 2004]
  • u* threshold estimation: [Iversen and White, 1982] or [Shao and Lu, 2000]
  • Mineral dust emissions: saltation and sandblasting [Marticorena and Bergametti, 1995] or [Alfaro and Gomes, 2001]
  • Deep convection: [Tiedke, 1989]
Examples of results:
Comparison between MODIS RapidFire images and CHIMERE-DUST modelled aerosol optical thicknesses.
  • Mediterranean dust - 24 February 2006
  • West Africa dust - 8 March 2006
    • Publications
    1. Menut L., O.Masson, B.Bessagnet, 2009, Contribution of Saharan dust on radionuclides aerosols activity levels in Europe? The 21-22 February 2004 case study J. Geophys. Res., 114, D16202, doi:10.1029/2009JD011767
    2. Vuolo M.R., H.Chepfer, L.Menut and G.Cesana, 2009, Comparison of mineral dust layers vertical structures modelled with CHIMERE-DUST and observed with the CALIOP lidar Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres , Vol. 114, D09214, doi:10.1029/2008JD011219
    3. Menut L., I. Chiapello and C. Moulin, 2009, Previsibility of mineral dust concentrations: The CHIMERE-DUST forecast during the first AMMA experiment dry season Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 114, D07202, doi:10.1029/2008JD010523
    4. Vuolo M.R., L.Menut and H.Chepfer, 2009, Impact of transport schemes accuracy on modelled dust concentrations variability Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 26, p.1135-1143, doi:10.1175/2008JTECHA1197.1
    5. Menut L., 2008, Sensitivity of hourly Saharan dust emissions to NCEP and ECMWF modelled wind speed Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 113, D16201, doi:10.1029/2007JD009522
    6. Bessagnet B., L.Menut, G.Aymoz, H.Chepfer and R.Vautard, 2008, Modelling dust emissions and transport within Europe: the Ukraine March 2007 event Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, in press
    7. Colette A., Menut L., Haeffelin M., Morille Y., 2007, Impact of the transport of aerosols from the free troposphere towards the boundary layer on the air quality in the Paris area, Atmospheric Environment, Vol 42/2 pp 390-402, DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.09.044
    8. Menut L., G.Foret and G.Bergametti, 2007, Sensitivity of mineral dust concentrations to the model size distribution accuracy, Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheres, 112, D10210, doi:10.1029/2006JD007766
    9. Chiapello I., C. Moulin and J.M. Prospero, Understanding the long-term variability of African dust transport across the Atlantic as recorded in both Barbados surface concentrations and large-scale TOMS optical thickness, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres "Impact of Mineral Dust" special section
    10. Menut L., C.Schmechtig and B.Marticorena, Sensitivity of the sandblasting fluxes calculations to the soil size distribution accuracy, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 22, No. 12, pages 1875-1884, 2005.
    11. Forêt, G., G. Bergametti, F. Dulac, and L. Menut (2006), An optimized particle size bin scheme for modeling mineral dust aerosol, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D17310, doi:10.1029/2005JD006797.
    Conferences
    1. Menut L., Dust forecast variability with the chimere-dust modelling system, WMO/GEO Expert meeting on an International Sand and Dust Storm Warning System, Barcelona, Spain, 7-9 November 2007
    2. Vuolo R., L.Menut, H.Chepfer, Evaluation of aerosol transport schemes in CHIMERE-DUST with CALIPSO data, Aqua-Train conference, Lille, France, October 2007
    3. Alfaro S., Y.Balkanski, G.Bergametti, I.Chiapello, K.Deboudt, K.Desboeufs, S.Despiau, F.Dulac, C.Flamant, P.Flament, F.Gheusi, P.Goloub, L.Gomes, C.Guieu, J.-L.Jaffrezo, M.Legrand, J.-F.Leon, R.Losno, M.-D. Loye-Pilot, M.Mallet, N.Marchand, B.Marticorena, L.Menut, C.Migon, C.Moulin, J.Pelon, M.Pham, F.Ravetta, D.Tanre, S.Thiria, H.Wortham, Impacts of intense aerosol episodes in the western Mediterranean region, Hymex workshop, Toulouse
    4. Menut L., C.Schmechtig, R.Vautard, G.Foret, G.Bergametti, Sensitivity of mineral dust concentrations fields to modelled emissions and meteorology, AGU San Francisco, 2006
    5. Menut L., C.Schmechtig, R.Vautard and B.Marticorena, Modelling of mineral dust emissions and transport with the chimere-dust model: preliminary analysis of dust events for the AMMA field campaign, ITM NATO Leipzig 2006
    6. Menut L., B. Bessagnet, R. Vautard, A. Hodzic, C. Honore and L. Rouil, Relative impact of anthropogenic and natural aerosols on air quality modelling over Europe with the CHIMERE model, IMPA2006, Delhi, India, Feb. 2006
    7. Menut L., G.Foret and G.Bergametti, Impact of mineral dust size resolved bin schemes on simulated mineral dust concentrations accuracy over the western Africa, 1st International AMMA conference, Dakar, Senegal, December 2005
    8. Schmechtig C., L. Menut, B. Marticorena, B. Chatenet, Simulations of mineral dust concentrations over Western Africa with ChimereDUST model, EGU 2005, Vienna, Austria, 24-29 April 2005
    9. Menut L., C.Schmechtig and B.Marticorena, Transport of mineral dust: sensitivity of concentration to the parameterizations of emissions and deposition in the chimere-dust model, ACCENT symposium, Urbino, Italy, september 2005
    10. Rajot J.L et al., Mineral dust in Sahelian Africa: The AMMA 2005-2007 field experiment, EGU 2005, Vienna, Austria, 24-29 April 2005
    11. Rajot J.L., B. Marticorena, P. Formenti, S. Alfaro, B. Chatenet, F. Dulac, K. Desboeufs S. Caquineau, M. Maille G. Bergametti, A. Gaudichet, A.O. Manga, A. Diallo, L. Menut, G. Cautenet, Mineral dust in sahelian africa: the AMMA 2005-2007 field experiment, EGU, Nice, 2004
    12. Schmechtig C., L.Menut, B. Marticorena and B.Chatenet, Preliminary validation of the mineral dust transport model CHIMERE-DUST, ENVISAT conference, Salzburg, Austria, Septembre 2004
    13. Menut L., C. Schmechtig, B.Marticorena, B.Chatenet, I.Chiapello and C.Moulin, Development of a Regional Dust Transport Model: Preliminary Sensitivity Studies, AGU Fall Meeting, San Franscisco, Decembre 2004
    14. Chiapello I., B. Marticorena, L.Menut, C.Schmechtig, B.Chatenet and C.Moulin, Development and validation of a regional model of desert dust for the study of seasonal and interannual variations over Sahara and Sahel - coupling with satellite observations, 1st AEROCOM meeting, Paris, June 2003